Tshikota resident lost faith in Council’s sweet promises amidst a river of faeces

“Our troubles know no end. This sewer has been affecting us for the past two years and some months now. Our municipality is not being helpful.”

A resident of Tshikota, Ms Sophie Ndou, said those painful words when Limpopo Mirror visited her home at house number 1216 on 3 April. The family at house number 1216, and their neighbours, had been complaining to the Makhado Municipality about the hazardous trench of streaming sewage situated near their house.

The municipality had dug the trench from the sewerage mainline to divert the seemingly uncontrollable sewage onto the open, bushy ground which lies only about 15 metres away from the houses at Mibomoni section. This happened some two years ago.

Today, after the family’s many attempts to get the municipality to fix the sewerage system and also after numerous articles which Limpopo Mirror wrote on the case, the municipality recently widened and deepened the trench.

“We sit outdoors all the time to keep an eye on our children,” said Ndou. “We fear they might go near the river of faeces and fall into it and die. They want a child to die first before they close this river of faeces.”

During the summer rains, explained Ndou’s neighbour, who declined to be named, the trench overflowed with sewage and got into their houses. “It was a total mess,” she said.

On 3 April, there was no running water in Tshikota. There was a flaked carpet of sewage inside the unfinished rooms which Ndou is currently trying to add to her RDP house.

“This mess came from an overflowing toilet,” she said. “Most of the time there’s no water in Tshikota. So when water comes after three or four days, the sewage from other homes pushes up in my toilet and fills my house.”

Ndou told Limpopo Mirror this Tuesday that she had hired labour to totally remove the toilet as it was causing her a lot of problems. “We are using a bucket now,” she said. “When it is full, we just empty the contents in the river of faeces.”

At some stage last year, municipal workers who had come to fix the dysfunctional sewerage system were said to have told the affected family to move to any of the nearby villages if they thought the sewage was problematic to them. The municipality’s spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi, subsequently responded that whoever suggested that the family should relocate was not speaking on the municipality’s behalf and “was out of order”.

“I am confused now,” Ndou said. “This lack of service delivery tells me to open the eyes of my mind and vote for change on 7 May. It’s hard for us in Tshikota.”

The spokesperson for Vhembe District Municipality, Mr Matodzi Ralushai, confirmed that the sewerage system falls under their jurisdiction. “We are not aware that there is such a problem where sewerage systems are fixed today and the next day the same problem reoccurs,” he said. “We will look into this matter and get back to you with a response.”

News - Date: 11 April 2014

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]